Coilover shocks at the rear?

[woodwiz]

Never tried it but always wondered if on a leaf springed B-body if you could get any benefit to running a adjustable coilover shock on the rear or would it be too stiff and put undue stress on the body mount?...Ideas please and thanks!!

 

[quikbird]

sadly body mount not strong enough. many people found out the hard way after their air shocks punched through the trunk floor

 

[woodwiz]

Kinda had that feeling myself. I have the HD springs (new) from Summit on the rear 6-drivers side/7-psgr side but i still have a lean to the drivers side rear. Adjusted the torsion bars some but ti did'nt take it out totally. The adjusters on the lower control arms are at different lengths and the front end heights at the fender lip are the same...go figure! Have'nt had it realigned yet,maybe they can tweak it right.

 

[MoparDan]

I guess I was lucky, I ran Gabriel Hijackers on my 69 1/2 Super Bee the whole time I owned it and never had a problem, But I do agree with quikbird.

 

[Roadcuda]

sadly body mount not strong enough. many people found out the hard way after their air shocks punched through the trunk floor

That's what happened to my first '69 RR back in '73. But instead of fixing it correctly the previous owner bolted the broken end of the mount to trunk floor thus tearing that up!

 

[quikbird]

Woodwiz, is there a possibility that your car at some point was involved in an accident and the body might have been tweaked or twisted?

 

[woodwiz]

That’s been my thought since I got this car. I know they didn’t back in the day make um perfect,but a smack at the back in some 50 years…it could happen.
Anyway it’s not something I can’t compensate for. There is some messy stuff underneath at the back around the bumper attachment but it is all solid.

 

[woodwiz]

There’s a fair share of encapsulated rust from the days,but the backend bumper area shows the most lack of attention.
This car was allegedly refurbished some 15 years ago,but one person’s refurbish is not necessarily a another’s. Don’t get me wrong it’s in very good condition. If I sent it to Graveyard Carz they’d send it for a dip and go from there and 6figures later it would be perfect. It’s perfect just the way it is.
Their all done with that…sorry to run on!